


Do Better

by PortPowerhouse



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Multi, Rewrite, The 100 (TV) Season 7
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:15:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28169874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PortPowerhouse/pseuds/PortPowerhouse
Summary: I’m doing a rewrite of season 7 because we deserved better. I know the writing team probably had to scramble to accommodate the different availability from actors than they were originally expecting but I really want to see the original script because a lot of these plot holes had to exist in the original script. I am not a professional writer and a lot this is originally based on predictions or complaints I had while watching the show, I’ve just been too lazy to write it up. Meaning: a team of professional writers should have been able to do better. Bellamy will appear the same amount in this fic as he did in the show because I want to demonstrate that this was not Bob Morley’s fault (like yes I would have loved more Bellamy but not the point). If anyone knows of any other scheduling issues with the cast and why they couldn’t be featured more let me know and I will work around that more, but I’ve read interviews of JRot where he seems to blame some of the problems with how the seventh season turned out on Bob.Aka season 7 let’s do better this timeAka it’s not Bob’s faultAka don’t leave any Chekov’s gun unfiredAka SHOW ME ACTUAL ALIENS
Relationships: Bellamy Blake & Clarke Griffin, Bellamy Blake/Echo, Clarke Griffin & John Murphy, Emori/John Murphy (The 100), Octavia Blake & Charmaine Diyoza
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. Episode 1 rant

So how I’m going to structure this fic is I’ll have a chapter rant about everything wrong with the episode then the next chapter will be a rewrite of scenes (or maybe an entire episode when I get further on and start to diverge more) I would have wanted to go different. I’ll probably be reordering the episodes because I truly hated everything being shown as flashback. You do need to have watched season 7 for this to make sense. Let me know if I should put a synopsis of the episode to remind you what happened.

I write these rants as I rewatch the episode, so if I’m complaining about the A plot and the B plot it gets a little mixed together. Just be prepared for me to jump from one point to another and back to the first.

Episode 1 was mostly good. I have very few complaints compared to other episodes. Yes, this is short compared to what's coming unless I can get more concise.

Why do the soldiers of Bardo immediately attack? For a people whose catchphrase is “for the good of all mankind” they sure woke up and chose violence. (They did the same thing when they first met Octavia and Diyoza, but I’ll leave that for the episode where it occurs.) They never actually use Bellamy (which I’ll cover in the episode where he shows up on Bardo), but I assume the purpose was either to get more information from him or use him to make Octavia more compliant. Why couldn’t they have started with “Hey Bellamy, if you want to see your sister again, follow us”? 

Although, it does look like Bob only had like thirty-ish seconds of crying and screaming “Octavia” before Bellamy was knocked out and dragged face down. So for the replacement scene, I’m going to give Bellamy minimal screen time, just imagine anytime he isn’t talking, the camera isn’t on him.

Most importantly, why do the Bardo soldiers keep attacking Echo, Gabriel, and Hope after they’ve grabbed Bellamy? Why don’t they just get him and retreat? There was a little sense (maybe) with attacking Echo right off the bat so that they could get away, but everything after that just hammers down my point of they woke up and chose violence. 

While watching it again on Netflix (so I could actually pause it), I notice it identifies Gabriel and Echo as targets to capture and take back to Bardo. Okay, makes sense why they are sticking around but not their tactics. And why is Hope labelled as ‘Kill on sight’. Yeah, she caused problems and killed several people, but she is also the best chance at getting Diyoza to cooperate. They should also know that she won’t have any memories of Bardo so… why are we jumping straight to kill? Diyoza has probably caused more problems and killed more people from her little prison cell on Bardo, but keep her alive and kill her daughter? 

Gabriel, Echo, and Hope run to the portal because it got quieter and “they must be closing it”. After they walk through it closes completely though. I’m going to chalk this up to an editing mistake or else there are more questions. So I’ll assume when it got quieter, the portal to Bardo closed and it reverted to the normal state of a portal to Penance/Skyring. If it wasn’t an editing mistake and the portal did completely close after they walked through then: 1) how lucky are they since that last ten meters was such a slow walk 2) how would Bardo control if Sanctum’s portal was open or closed?

I feel like either the showrunners or writers wanted to keep the audience in suspense about this new enemy, but they have cool enough suits even without being invisible. I understand wanting to start out with a bang and that a diplomatic talk isn’t quite as adrenaline pumping as fighting invisible enemies. What does it have though? Motive. Every character needs to have a motive behind each of their actions. This seems obvious, but the season seven writers forgot about this on numerous occasions.

Why have they woken up any of the prisoners before they’re ready to be put to work? Did I forget them being woken up at some point last season? I’m convinced I must be forgetting something from last season because why would anyone be like “The prisoners can help us build the new compound” “Yeah, where is that going to be?” “I don’t know, but we’re already up here and don’t want to waste a trip back and forth again. Let’s wake some up now and they can just camp in the middle of town.” “Yeah, no chance of that backfiring.” “Should there be any faces that we recognize from season 5?” “No silly, all of those are dead.” “Do we have any idea which ones are volatile?” “Nope” “Any ideas about the existing social structure or hierarchy within the group?” “Not a clue.”

The thing is, I know why they did this. The writers were setting up a powder keg and lighting a fuse. The problem is that it’s too obvious and the characters are too smart to have done this. 

We do need a small group of convicts to stay back so some can die in the generator, but I will be writing a little scene about the convicts to justify the reason for some of them being there. 

I know shows can’t be expected to plan several seasons ahead and it might be a little difficult to cast people for season 5 and 7 and not 6. There’s just too much of a disconnect. This season tries to introduce a new group of prisoners and a whole human civilization on Bardo. If they had some characters introduced in season 5 it might have helped.

Jasper talks to Russell and Russell asks him if he “got a glimpse?”. He references that he modeled Sanctum around the spiral-like symbol he saw. Good thing that whole thing gets explained in the end, right? Is that spiral symbol supposed to represent the anomaly stone? Because Russell has seen it before. He doesn’t know what it is, but the scene makes it seem like Russell doesn't even know what this symbol even represents.

Not a problem, just a theoretical question: if the adjustment showed Jordan the anomaly stone and Russell has seen it in his own visions, would some visions show people codes for the stones (particularly THE CODE)?

Not an issue with season 7, but more with season 6 that I just wanted to bring up: why did they feed the nulls to the forest? Why did they not instead throw them into the anomaly? 

Really not a fan of the Echo and Hope dialogue. “How fast can you run?” “I don’t know, let’s find out.” It just made me cringe, but I feel like I’m nitpicking on that. Not every piece of dialogue is going to be great.

Why is there no pushback from any of wonkru like why is this our problem? (concerning the struggle within Sanctum between the Children of Gabriel and the Faithful) Yes, they did cause a lot of this to come to a head, but there’s usually someone in the group that will voice the opposition. In most cases it makes sense for it to be Murphy, can’t you hear him say “How is this our problem?” But we just needed someone to be like, “maybe we should let them sort this out among themselves”

Just a continuity check-in at the beginning of the season for Echo. We have her vision of Roan telling her “Now that Bellamy’s gone, who will you follow.” “Without someone to follow, who are you?” Very important, Echo is a follower. This has already been established in previous seasons. Deeper character analysis of this trait and how it is shown or changes throughout the season will be talked about more in later episodes. Or feel free to discuss in the comments!

I have an idea on how to feasible ret-con Josie back in since she was my favorite character. Is this something that y’all would be interested in seeing? It works just as well without her. Most likely going to do it unless there is major backlash

Rewritten scenes will be posted tomorrow or the next day. If I didn’t write a scene changing something, assume it stayed the same, even if I complained about it. For this episode, I will be rewriting the B plot (starring Echo, Gabriel, Hope, and Bellamy) and one small scene that includes the convicts. If you think anything else in this episode needs to be rewritten, leave a comment down below and I’ll see what I can do about it.


	2. Episode 1 Rewrite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode 1 Rewrite Scenes 
> 
> Like I mentioned in the last chapter, I’ll be rewriting the B plot (the one starring Bellamy, Echo, Gabriel, and Hope) and adding a small scene at the end about the convicts. Also, in my rant chapter I forgot to mention this important dialogue that happened when Clarke and co walk into Sanctum (forgot exact wording and who said the first line, but you get the idea) “Too many people.” Raven: “Good thing ALIE isn’t here.” Like you’re going to make an ALIE joke episode 1, but then not address how ascension is different from the City of Light?

B Plot:

“Octavia!” Bellamy ran out the tent desperately searching for his sister. Was she even alive at this point? She turned to dust and slipped through his fingers. He sank to his knees and cried his sister’s name again, quieter this time because he knew… he knew no matter how loud he screamed it wouldn’t make a difference.

“Bellamy Blake?” He looked up to find a man standing in front of him with his entire face obscured by a helmet. “I can take you to your sister if you’ll just follow me.” The man gestured his arm in the direction of the anomaly.

“Bellamy!” Echo screamed as she ran out of the tent, but stopped short when she saw the stranger standing in front of Bellamy. “What did you do with Octavia?” 

“We are here to help,” the masked man spoke calmly. “We have orders to escort Bellamy Blake, Clarke Griffin, Echo kom Azgeda, and Gabriel Santiago. Octavia has informed us that those four people could help save our entire race. We also have reason to believe that an escaped fugitive, Hope Diyoza, might have escaped through here. She should be considered armed and dangerous. We would appreciate any information you have that can assist in her recapture.”

“Diyoza? So that full grown woman who just stabbed Octavia is the daughter of a woman who was pregnant a few days ago? Okay, sure,” Echo bit back sarcastically. “Why should we believe anything you say? You appear just minutes after Octavia disappears and we are supposed to believe you’re here to help? Tell me the truth, why are you really here? What do you want from us?” As she spoke, Echo moved to slowly remove the knife from her back waistband. She kept her movements slow and hidden.

“Target is reaching for a weapon. Permission to treat as hostile, sir?” The voice was feminine and came from Echo’s right, but there was no one there. Echo turned to face the invisible voice making sure to keep the masked man in the corner of her vision.

“How many of you are there? Show yourselves!” Echo screamed. Everything left footprints, if she could find the footprints she could find these invisible people.

“Please calm down. Set your weapon on the ground. Come with us and we can explain everything.”

Echo slowly lowered herself into a crouch and made a show of setting her knife on the ground, but before letting it go, she picked up a handful of dirt and threw it in the direction the feminine voice had come from. Some of the dust settled on the invisible woman and Echo now had a target at which to launch herself at.

It matters very little that she cannot see who she is fighting. How many times has she had to kill in the dead of night? She’s made contact with a solid surface and nothing is going to stop her from landing a solid punch and wrestling this woman to the ground.

Bellamy turns to see the fight behind him, but before he can join, the masked man behind him stabs a syringe into his neck. Bellamy’s body goes stiff and the masked man catches him under his arms before he starts to fall. “Vita and Jonas, take this one back. We’ll gather the rest.”

Inside, Gabriel studies the markings on the mysterious girl’s face. All of the symbols on her face also appear on the anomaly stone. He quickly draws out all of those symbols onto a nearby piece of paper. Maybe it’s part of a code that will unlock some of the mysteries surrounding the anomaly.

The girl suddenly jerks awake when he’s about halfway through copying down the symbols. “Whoa whoa whoa, it’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you. Octavia called you Hope, is that right?” Gabriel asks.

The girl has scrambled off the medical bench and is eyeing him warily. Her eyes dart around the room, but always come back to Gabriel. She’s like a prey, trapped and looking for an escape. “What’s happening? 

“Everything is fine. Do you remember how you got here? Do you know what happened to Octavia?” Gabriel took a slow step towards the girl with his hands up trying to give off a friendly, non-threatening presence.

“Bellamy! ... Gabriel, help me! They’re taking Bellamy!” Echo screams. As Gabriel’s head responsively jerks towards where the sound came from, the girl takes advantage of his distraction to dart past him and out of the shelter. He grunted in frustration before running out himself.

When he got outside, he glanced at the mysterious girl disappearing into the treeline before focusing on the problem in front of him. Echo seemed to be struggling against some invisible force. “Gabriel, get a gun and shoot around me.”

“What is even happening? What is attacking you?” Gabriel questioned.

“I don’t know. Just get a gun and shoot around me!” Echo repeated growing more frustrated. Octavia disappeared, Bellamy has been taken, and now she is fighting some invisible enemies. She has tried to work past the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ mentality she had held her whole life, but right now, she really wishes she had come out guns blazing. Maybe if she could just reach the knife in her boot, having dropped the original one in the scuffle.

Gabriel runs back inside, grabs a gun, and hurries back out. He aims two feet to the left of Echo and shoots. Suddenly, an armoured, helmeted figure blinks into existence in front of him, but collapses moments later. “What the hell!” He can’t help but curse. He aims again, this time to the right of Echo and fires off a couple of shots. Two more figures become visible and drop to the ground. With less people to fight, Echo is able to pick up her knife and stab the remaining assailant. When the figure becomes visible, she sees her aim was true, right in the heart. 

“They took Bellamy.” Echo walked to Gabriel snatched the gun from his hands and let loose a hail of bullets into the clearing. “We’re clear for now, but keep your ears open. We need to get to the anomaly before they take Bellamy through.”

“What about the girl?” Gabriel asked, but Echo had already started running.

“Priorities,” Echo called back over her shoulder. “First, we find Bellamy then we can deal with Hope.”

The girl was scared. She woke up in a strange place and she can’t remember how she got here. She can’t remember anything. She should remember her own name at the very least, right? But all her memories were just a cloudy haze. So many questions: what was her name? Who was Octavia? Where was she? Why does her arm hurt?

She rolled up her sleeves and unwrapped her arm in the hope that she could solve at least one mystery. She had a nasty gash on her arm and it looked like there might be something in there. She carefully pushed out a tiny capsule. She unscrewed it and found a note with a weird symbol printed on it inside. On the back was a handwritten note, ‘Trust Bellamy’. 

Okay, maybe Bellamy would have some answers. But who was Bellamy? That other girl had screamed that Bellamy was being taken. She needed to find that girl and the other man. They would help her find Bellamy. 

Echo stopped running to let Gabriel catch up to her. “What’s that noise?”

Gabriel came huffing to a stop beside her. “It sounds… like the… anomaly,” he spoke struggling to breathe. “They must be able to control it… and they might be shutting it down.”

“Then we need to hurry.”

“Wait, there'll be a lot of toxin in the air,” Gabriel reminded her. He pulled out the anti-toxin from his bag and inhaled a few times. “Not today, my love,” he whispered to himself. “Here take this.” He held out the anti-toxin to Echo, but she batted his hand away.

“Did you hear that?”

“No, are there more of those invisible people?”

“Get down.” Echo pushed Gabriel down by a fallen tree and crouched beside him. 

“Once a killer, always a killer.” No, she didn’t hear that. That was Roan’s voice, she knew it, but he had died hundreds of years ago back on Earth. “Without Bellamy, who will you follow?” It was Roan. He was standing in the forest just ten feet behind her.

“Shut up,” she spit at the ghost.

“Echo, it’s not real. You didn’t use the anti-toxin.”

When she focused back in front, Roan was already there. Then from out behind him, stepped Echo, the original Echo, with the arrow she was killed with still sticking out of her chest. “Answer the question, Ash,” her dead friend ordered her.

“Without someone to follow, who are you?” 

“A girl who killed her only friend and stole her name.”

“The honorless spy who would do anything for her queen, even betray the man she now claims to love?”

She could see movement behind her two ghosts, she had to take the shot. “I’m sorry.” 

“Wait, Echo, don’t shoot!” Gabriel shouted. “It’s Hope.”

The mysterious girl came running towards them as they stood up from behind the log. “Where’s Bellamy? I need to find Bellamy.” She thrust the note she found in her arm at them as proof. “I found this in my arm.”

“Why should we trust you? Are you going to stab him just like you stabbed Octavia?” Echo asked.

“I did what? No. I just- I don’t know what’s happening,” Hope explained.

“We don’t really have time to determine whether or not she is trustworthy right now,” Gabriel reminded Echo. “We- all of us-” he gestured making sure to include Hope in that ‘we’, “need to get through the anomaly before it closes or we might never see Bellamy again.”

The three of them took off running towards the portal again. Gabriel made sure to grab both of the girl’s hands when they reached the clearing. “We have to go in together. We don’t know how long we will be separated by if we’re even seconds apart.” 

The three ran hand in hand into the anomaly.

The convicts:

“What are you still doing in town?” Clarke asked the most outspoken of the convicts. “Aren’t you supposed to be scouting the terrain for a new compound.”

“We are simply trying to be present where we will be most useful,” Hatch explained. “This little lass-” he gestured towards Raven “said there might be some need for some mechanical expertise concerning this fancy shield that is protecting us from some vewy scarewy buggies.”

“Don’t you worry, princess,” Hatch’s girl told Clarke. “We’ve got it all taken care of. The Donner party is scouting north. Pele and Pocahontas are going towards that big swirly thing. Bjorn, Ivar, Vlad, and Magnus are going ‘as far away from that swirly thing as possible’. Earp, Bass, Hardin, Hickok, and Oakley all took off in different directions, but I don’t think any of them have any plans to return.”

Clarke takes in all this information and pulls Raven to the side. “Find something for the remaining ones to do. I don’t want them stirring up even more trouble just because they get bored.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“Also, I know you tried to pull the least dangerous ones, but can you get me the records of what each of these people actually did?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm not the best writer, but I hope you get the idea and like the concept.
> 
> What would you have changed about this episode?


	3. Episode 2 Rant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penance/Skyring/Planet Beta is not inescapable and I will fight anyone who says otherwise

I’m going to start off with a lot of the mysticism surrounding the anomaly that was established last season doesn’t hold up as well when we try to attach science to it like this season does for some of it. Octavia’s hand and arm got damaged last season, but was cured when she came back through the anomaly. Okay fine, we didn’t know what happened, so we didn’t know how it was fixed. Turns out, it was fixed by her going through the portal. Why though?

So my theory, and anyone please feel free to contradict this, is Octavia’s hand aged super rapidly when it was hit by the temporal flare, so her hand was say for example a hundred years old. What caused the arm to heal/age backwards, but had no side effects on the rest of her? Were all her other wounds healed? I just feel like the injured hand was no longer a plot device so they got rid of it. But I would, no joke, love for someone who actually understands the theory of relativity and wormholes to explain why it happened.

Honestly, it would have been interesting if they had amputated Octavia’s arm. There is a severe lack of representation for amputees. And come on, Octavia could take anyone if one hand behind her back in the first place.

Huge problem with any of the characters stuck on Skyring is that the portal is “too deep” and the dive “will kill you”. The problem is that Echo has five years before getting off the long way, and Octavia has the rest of her life. Neither could become expert free divers in that time? We are never actually told how far down the anomaly is, but it is close enough to the surface that Octavia came through it disoriented and took a second to get her bearings before swimming to the top. Now, you can argue that it’s easier to swim up than down, but with years of training I feel like she should have been able to make it to the anomaly.

Octavia can only hold her breath for two minutes after training for three years. According to a quick google search, “most people can hold their breath for somewhere between 30 seconds and up to 2 minutes”. Title of a freediving article I saw while searching ‘how long can a freediver hold their breath’ (nine minutes is the woman’s record) was ‘How to hold your breath for 5 minutes in 1 month’. I know she doesn’t have this information at her disposal, but Diyoza, the former SEAL, is not being entirely unhelpful.

Also, can we talk for a minute about why Diyoza doesn’t want to leave? Yeah, the Primes of Sanctum hate her and she doesn’t know they’ve been overthrown, but why couldn’t she have lived in the woods outside Sanctum with her daughter? How different would that have been from her current situation? Also, Diyoza and Octavia probably have a shorter life expectancy than Hope given all the physical trauma they’ve endured. Diyoza would be sentencing her daughter to decades of isolation if they choose to stay on the planet. So, yeah, we’re definitely doing family swim lessons to get to that shiny thing at the bottom of the lake. And they didn’t even try to rig up some scuba gear/submarine like a diving bell. (I’ve done way too much research into these subject and know too much now.)

One thing that just feels really weird is how old they decided to make Hope (and Jordan). I feel like they made a mistake trying to make them the same age as the original 100 currently are. I feel like it would have been more effective to just make them a few years younger (to how old the 100 were when they were sent to Earth). I feel like it’s most obvious between how differently Madi and Jordan are treated. Jordan lived a way more sheltered life than Madi, and Monty and Harper were like ‘take care of him please’. And I feel like he just gets a ‘you good, bro?’ like ‘oh you just got adjusted, but that’s over now so everything’s gucci now, right?’ And it might be the threat of Clarke’s anger directed at you if Madi comes to any harm, but when is Jordan going to get his therapy session with Jackson. Also, Hope’s cockiness and snarky attitude fit a teenager better. I know the point was probably to demonstrate that Hope and Jordan’s age doesn’t equate experience or something like that. I don’t know. I didn’t care for it. But I’ll leave it to a vote (so please comment), should I age Hope down or leave her the same?

Why is the doll called Hope? Would love if there was some sort of reason or connection and if that reason or connection were explained. Like, I saw the height markings (or any other evidence left behind my Octavia, Diyoza, and Hope) and named the doll that. Was I too zoned out in the first viewing to pick up the reason for the doll name and why he was immediately drawn to Hope?

Okay one of my big problems was that they had a bridge to other planets that they either didn’t use at all (Sanctum and Etherea) or could have been used better (Penance and Nakara). I’ll cover the others in the episode they’re featured in. Penance, where you are sent if you make a tiny mistake for years. One unanswered question I have, do the prisoners get a helmet for their return trip through the portal? In my head, no. How many people go crazy or start questioning in the system during their time on Penance. In my head, when they return to Bardo the slate is wiped clean, but you’re just left with this feeling having lost something, but not even knowing what it is you’re missing. You know you now have less chance of ascending because you have less life to live, less time for them to find the code within your lifetime. (No longer possibly canon compliant but) You’re not escorted there, you’re taken in the middle of the night and wake in a bed that is not your own. You know what this place is, you were taught about it in school, but didn’t think you would ever end up here.

Okay, but how could they be using Penance better? They’ve been working on cracking the code for a long time. I think at one point they mention a thousand years. At some point, when they were just spinning their wheel and getting nowhere, someone should have thrown up their hands and said “let’s just brute force it”. “But that would take forever” you say. Well they have this handy little place where you can reach forever just a little bit quicker. So instead of having a timer countdown tattoo (which they don’t even bother to explain the science of because - future), there is a helmet (unable to remove it from the room) that has a countdown of how many codes you must try. How many more planets could they have discovered? How many aliens could they have pulled through? Like so much so that there is a galactic protocol on what to do when kidnapped to Penance.

Also, I hate how loosey goosey with the time relativity/dilation. Like if they don’t tell us the actual conversion rate then they don’t have to be consistent. Also, the dedication to a singular timeline within an episode doesn’t let us feel the time relativity. I’m probably going to talk about this a lot more in the next episode, but given the time relativity we’ve seen so far (a few seconds in Sanctum equals a few months on Penance), Echo, Hope, and Gabriel should be on Bardo before sunrise on Sanctum. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

We learn Skyring is actually Planet Beta, but were Nakara, Etherea, and Bardo supposed to be Planets Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon? Wish this was addressed.

More of a complaint about the ending, but important quote by Gabriel in this episode: “You could explore the entire universe.” Or just build a log cabin on Earth (when shelters and farms already exist on planets you’ve been to). Can’t focus on that too much now, stick around for my full dissertation on the matter when I rant about the finale.

Let’s talk about that body Octavia found in the garden. Why was it there? Did they only send one person to retrieve the prisoner one time and that prisoner killed and buried them? Why was no one sent to retrieve the body? I’ll talk more about my general problem with Bardo’s ‘burial ritual’ later, but the random dead soldier just feels weird. Like the prisoner who killed him might have been too crazy to take the helmet and escape, but what about all the prisoners after them. It’s not like the body was super hidden either, just a few inches deep right near the cabin.

Okay it was really fast and I don’t want to do a frame by frame, but Octavia carries one of those boxes that a prisoner is first given when they come to the island out to the garden and it has some symbol that I assume would be associated with the Second Dawn cult. But Octavia couldn’t have that revelation because the writers wanted to save the big reveal for later.

Also, once Octavia decided to stay, they didn’t explore any? There could have been aliens just a mile away and they wouldn’t have known. Diyoza scouted when she first got there, but she was six months pregnant and smart enough not to get too far away from reliable shelter or a fresh water source. Gabriel and Echo also don’t bother to explore (or it’s never shown) which seems counterintuitive for both of them. Gabriel wanting to learn more and Echo looking for other ways off the planet.

Also, seeing the relationship between Octavia and Diyoza again, I think it’s a bad choice that they decided to push the Octavia and Levitt relationship. I’m not reading any romantic vibes between Diyoza and Octavia (I’m sure there are plenty of fics that say otherwise) but they seem like soulmates. Platonic soulmates. Perfect partners. Co-parents. Two serpents, one garden. I would have preferred that all the time they did towards “developing” Octavia and Levitt’s relationship and spent more time on Octavia and Diyoza’s friendship.

So when Gabriel is looking through Colin’s memory drive, he sees the Eligius transport crashed (Mothership should have still been good to go for the other three planets) and the method he used to ascertain the code. What does Gabriel not do? Look for the wreck to salvage parts or try to use the same method to find the code. And I know he only saw it once and maybe wasn’t paying that much attention after watching hours of videos, but you don’t want to just give it a shot based on the vague memory?

I also feel like a huge problem with the show writer’s inconsistencies with the time dilation is present in his episode. According to google, non-biodegradable fabrics/synthetic fabrics can take between 20 to 200 years to decompose. That nametag Gabriel used to identify Colin should not exist. So Eligius III set off in 2045. I really do not want to do math (well I do, but they don’t give enough of the variables). We can solely focus on the relationship between Sanctum and Skyring for this. As the mothership left Sanctum, it would get further from the blackhole the closer it got to Skyring. So time was speeding up. Over two hundred Sanctum years had passed when Gabriel gets to Skyring. So how long did it take Eligius III to get to Skyring? Did Eligius III have to go closer to the blackhole to get to Skyring? And how long has Colin been dead? I feel like the writing team didn’t bother with these questions. They had all the variables (or could make them up and make them canon if they didn’t), but they chose not to do the math? Everything, even non-biodegradable products, will turn to dust given enough time. But since they weren’t paying attention to the rules it raises more questions. Was the Second Dawn on Bardo by the time Colin opened the portal? Why did he die on Skyring if he opened the portal? Did an alien kill him? If some disciples came through, wouldn’t they want to take him alive, given how he opened the portal himself? Did he get there after Octavia and Diyoza left? I want to know the canon reason why he died. Did Second Dawn get to Bardo before Team Alpha got to Sanctum? Give me a timeline of the colonization of all the planets! Is that too much to ask? Is Eligius III still travelling to Planets Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. With this messed up timeline, it might not have reached them yet. Like imagine when they’re on Nakara and another Eligius shuttle just drops down in front of them.

Then we get to the final problem of the episode which is a similar problem to what I hated in the first episode. The disciples discover there are people on Penance because of Octavia’s message in a bottle. And instead of just popping through being like ‘how’d you get here?’ They immediately treat them as hostile. (At least they aren’t needlessly attacking while invisible, small victories.) Did they even read the note? Because they bring it with them then leave it in the garden? But Hope doesn’t notice it for the next ten years? Or someone else brings it later? Orlando, maybe? But why is it still shut? 

My fic is going to go in a different direction so this scene wouldn’t be in there, but just imagine how much trouble the disciples could save themselves if they were just nice.

“Oh hey there, wow more humans,” Disciple A spoke taking off his helmet.

“There were legends that there might be other survivors,” Disciple B cheered. “The Eligius missions set off before the Earth was destroyed. Were you a part of those?”

“It’s a little bit of a long story,” Diyoza joked.

“We must get them to the shepherd. Come along, we don’t bite,” Disciple B motioned excitedly. 

“My daughter chose to stay on Earth, but I think a piece of her might still be around,” the Shepherd explained. “You see Becca Franco created this chip she called-”

“The Flame,” Octavia interrupted. “Was your daughter a commander?”

“Well, I don’t know for certain, but I’m praying she was if that means a small part of her is still alive.”

“Well, lucky you, we happened to take that little microchip with us on our journey across the stars, but alas I would need to get back to Sanctum and my brother in order to retrieve it. I’m sure Madi would be willing to help you reconnect with memories of your daughter or whatever. I mean, you’ll have to get Clarke’s permission first.”

Josephine as Clarke when Bill Cadogan asks if he can just take Madi. “Go along, Madi. Have fun!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave a kudos if you liked it! And leave a comment telling me something you particularly liked or disliked about this episode!

**Author's Note:**

> I would really love to hear your thoughts. What did you think of the season? Leave a comment down below. 
> 
> Also, hello CW, feel free to hire me to review your scripts. I assume you have a vacancy. My qualifications: Do I have a degree in a relevant major? Nope. Did I take any writing classes after high school? No. Am I able to spot numerous problems within the script and provide suggestions for how they can be improved? Yes.


End file.
